


Everybody Wants To Rule The World

by catisacat



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-02-01 06:05:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12698931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catisacat/pseuds/catisacat
Summary: After a quick betrayal, Rhys finds himself the new head of Hyperion with Jack out of his head and trapped in a broken ECHO device.Enraged, Jack tells Rhys of his fate but enamored with his own success, he doesn't listen.





	1. Welcome To Your Life

**Author's Note:**

> Time for me to roll back and a do a good old fashioned Borderlands longfic.
> 
> I've had this one planned for a while now but just wasn't feeling it until right now. Been in a real genfic mood. Just ones that have, at most, a little shipping on the side.
> 
> Also I'm a sucker for naming things after songs. Corny? Yes. Do I love it? Also yes.

“So what’s it gonna be, Rhysie?”

Legs crossed, hands interlaced on his lap, Rhys looked around.

He’d been in Jack’s office before but sitting here, in his high backed yellow chair? Jack himself offering to rule Hyperion with him?

Even if Jack was nothing but a bright blue projection from his own mind, perched on the desk and looking at him expectantly it was slightly intimidating. His old belongings littered around the desk. A photo of a little girl, an odd metallic hand sticking out, a busted ECHO device. Antenna completely snapped off, lying by the picture.

This was something totally different. Rhys grinned, making Jack clap in response before grinning down at him sinisterly, “Is that a yes? That looks like a ‘yes’ face? I don’t like waiting, cupcake, pick up the pace.”

Rhys nodded with a smile, “Yeah, ruling Hyperion sounds pretty sweet.”

Jack’s cackle echoed in the otherwise empty office as he half hopped, half teleported to right over Rhys’s right shoulder.

A standard Hyperion port snaked out from behind the chair, hovering by Rhys’s head. Waiting to be grabbed and crammed into the hole in his skull.

Grabbing it with his right arm, reaching across and making a dull clunk of metal on metal with a theatrical flair that only widened Jack’s smile as he flickered out of existence. The distraction just long enough for Rhys’s other hand to tighten its grip on the other end of the wire. Ripping it out of the chair and cramming it into the broken ECHO device in front of him.

The screen on the handheld device lit up as Jack downloaded into it. For a second Jack didn’t do much but look around in confusion but when it hit him, his face contorted into hideous mask of rage.

His voice dropped to a low and threatening grumble, a jarring change from his usual tone of ‘screaming’, “Ohhhhhh, et tu Rhys? You're really going to do this? Just like everyone else? You're making the biggest mistake of the pathetic little waste of air you call a life.”

“I don't know Jack it, uhh, looks like everything's coming up Rhys from out here,” Rhys said, forcing a confident smirk.

“Oh, I'm sure it all looks like all sunshine and hookers from here on out for you,” Jack sneered, his voice pretty quickly amping up into yelling again, “That's hilarious! It's like watching a toddler racing a hungry Skag to their mom! Equally futile, equally gonna die.”

“Well, I’d be pretty impressed if you managed to kill me while trapped in this ECHO device considering the connection part is bro-”

“Oh, no, no, no, pumpkin. It’s not gonna be me that kills ya. Frankly, that’d probably be kinder. Well... at least faster. Just strangle you a little, maybe launch you into space a little, maybe little column A, little column B. MAYBE a little testing but honestly that’d be a pretty big waste of time ‘cause your scrawny lil’ body couldn’t take that much.”

Propping the device up on the desk and crossing his arms, Rhys’s smirk got a little more genuine, “Alright Jack, what do you think’s gonna happen?”

“You see what’s happened here? With us?” Jack said, gesturing to himself to Rhys and back again, “This is gonna be your future. Probably won’t take nearly as long ‘cause I’m not a dum-dum like you.”

“What, I’m gonna be a hologram?” Rhys laughed.

Jack laughed too but his was much more cold, “No, Rhys. You’re gonna be betrayed and then you’re gonna be dead. And then probably not a hologram. This part’s not normal.”

“Like, my friends would-”

“I thought YOU were my friend.”

Rhys faltered a little at that but didn’t let it show, “Oh, don’t act like you weren’t going to dispose of me the second you were able.”

“You’re even stupider than you look, kiddo,” Jack sneered, “Everything you thought you had? It’s all gonna be gone. Everything rots away. I didn’t wanna crush your stupid little dreams but I was gonna be your sole confidant by the time all this was done. But now you went and fucked it up.”

“I’ve got plenty of friends-”

“You think they’re gonna stay?” Jack laughed.

“I mean, me and Vaughn have been together ever since high school.”

“And where is he now, Rhysie? Where’s Vaughn?”

“I can… I can find him,” Rhys stuttered, “I have all the resources I could ever need.”

“Even if you do, nothing stays at the top for long,” Jack kept going, “It’s lonely a lonely life. I was strong enough to deal with it, I mean, I’m strong enough to deal with anything. But you? It’s gonna eat you alive, cupcake.”

“You don’t know me, Ja-”

“Yes, I do Rhysie. I was in your head, remember? I know you better than anyone ever has. Kinda fucked up when you think about it.”

“But my friends-”

“Let me lay this out for you. First and foremost, Athena and Janey are out. Like. If you ever hear from either of them again I will be deeply, deeply surprised. Athena’s a hell of a woman and she definitely isn’t going to tolerate this.”

“Well, to be fair, I’m not that close to either of them.”

Jack ignored him, counting off on his fingers, “Those bandit girls you’re all buddy buddy with? They’ll try and play ball for a while but they’re definitely gonna try and kill you eventually.”

Furrowing his brows, Rhys picked up the device, “No, I’m going to show them I’ll be a good leader. Help them. Help Pandora.”

“Oh, oh, oh, pumpkin. Do I know a thing or two about wanting to save Pandora,” Jack cackled, before going back to the topic at hand, “That Vaughn you prize so much? You’re definitely going to find him, I don’t think that geeky little beefcake is dead but he’s definitely next to leave you after the girls. Don’t get me wrong, he’s gonna stick around way longer than the others. Maybe even a few years. But eventually he’ll leave you too, just a ghost of your past fading away. Probably won’t even say goodbye.”

“Vaughn would never leave me,” Rhys said, grip tightening on the ECHO device from which Jack was taunting him.

“He will,” Jack nodded, confidently, “Just about the only person you know who won’t leave will be that Vault Hunter you befriended. Zer0? Yeah they’ll stick around. So you can pay them to kill people, they like being paid. Not really a friend, though. Just a particularly stabby coworker.”

“I’m not going to be assassinating people!” Rhys said, starting to lose his cool.

At that, Jack just started laughing wildly. Wiping non-existent tears from his eyes as he feigned being out of breath. Unceasing, Rhys eventually just slammed the power button on the ECHO device and shoved it into a drawer. Slamming it shut.

Leaning back, Rhys heard the chair’s creak echo throughout the empty room.  
Time to get down to business. He dug around in the desk until he found a back up cord, putting it into the chair before plugging himself into the system. Instantly, Hyperion systems started rewriting themselves, officially making him head of Hyperion.

Excitedly, Rhys pressed the button to the voice of Hyperion. Only having seen it on tours of the office, ecstatic to be pressing it himself. The voice came on, “Yes, Mister… Rhys, was it? I’ve been alerted that you are the new head of Hyperion. Is this correct?”

“Yes, it is,” Rhys said, trying to sound authoritative, “Please make an announcement for me. Tell everyone that they should be on the lookout for a couple of Pandoran women dressed in black-and-teal Hyperion clothing. They should be delivered to my office as soon as possible, don’t say I’m the new CEO yet though. Thank you.”

The announcer was a little surprised, unused to niceties like ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ She stumbled over her words, “Y-yes sir! Right on it!”

Leaning back again, Rhys closed his eyes and laced his fingers over his stomach.

This? This was going to be nice.

\- - -

“This is a hell of a predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into,” Sasha said, testing the very sturdy metal bars.

“Being jailed isn’t the worst thing we’ve gotten out of,” Fiona answered as she already was reaching around to examine the lock, “I’m not too worried. Not to mention we’ve got friends on the outside.”

“Oh yeah, Rhys is a real run-and-gun hero,” Sasha laughed, “Our knight in shining armor.”

“Look, he’s no knight but he knows this place better than anyone else.”

“Do we really know that though?”

Fiona wiggled her right hand over her left eyes, “He’s got… the things. The robot things.”

Sasha laughed, “Prosthetics?”

“Yeah, those things,” Fiona said, experimentally pressing the buttons, “He’s got scans of the entire station on there. For all we know he can even track us and he can probably bust this stupid fucking lock.”

“You think he’s smart enough to hack it? Literally?”

“I dunno, but if not he could like… punch it. Metal hand could do some damage, especially if he went at it for a while.”

“You think he’s strong enough to do that?” Sasha laughed, Fiona joining in.

Their mockery of Rhys was cut short as the voice of Hyperion echoed through the halls.

“Attention. Missing persons. Fiona and Sasha. Two adult women, both wearing black and teal outfits. First, tall, short hair with red streak, green eyes. Second, short, shoulder length dreads, green eyes. If found, please bring the both of them to the Hyperion CEO office. Unharmed.”

The sisters watched as their captor sauntered back over to their cells, two guards flanking her. Yvette gave them a once over before punching in a number and joking, “Looks like somebody’s getting a raise. Do us all a favor and let the guards just cuff you, we don’t need any more violence here today. Unless whoever summoned you wants to hurt you. Then we’ll have some more violence.”

Of course, there was a struggle. But by the end, the sisters were in cuffs and being dragged through the halls towards the office.

Looking around, Fiona and Sasha were creeped out by the number of Jack statues, pictures, whatever you could imagine. They realized they really had no idea who the hell ran Hyperion. God, they had to be better than Jack. Right? Right? Please agree, we need this.

But as the doors to the CEO’s office loomed in front of them they knew they’d find out soon.

The doors swung open to, somewhat surprisingly, more Jack statues.

A high backed yellow chair was facing away from them, whoever was sitting on it completely not visible.

Yvette sang out, “We have the sisters for you, Miss Anderson.”

An all too familiar voice responded, “I’m afraid Miss Anderson has been demoted from ‘acting CEO’ to… actually, I haven’t assigned her a new job yet.”

“Rhys?” Fiona asked, incredulously.

He spun his chair around with an obnoxious flare, clearly reveling in the dramatics of it all. The sisters couldn’t help but notice he looked quite a bit like a villain, smug look, legs crossed, fingers steepled. Slicked back hair looking a little less corporate casual and a little more ‘my shoes are made from hand picked baby skin.’

Well, his shoes were already made from dead animals so they supposed that would be the natural next step. Heh, step. Shoes. Feet. Walking. Get it?

Yvette was shellshocked though, “R-Rhys! How did? When did?”

He raised a single, metallic hand to that, “Oh, Yvette. Dumb, stupid, absolutely-fucked Yvette. Cuff her but also uncuff the other two.”

The guards immediately unlocked the sisters before grabbed Yvette’s hands, pulling them behind her back and restraining her with the same cuffs that had been on the other women seconds ago.

“Not to step on your moment in the sun but I’m also kind of curious how you pulled this off,” Fiona stepped forward, somewhat cautiously.

“Please, have a seat,” Rhys said, pointing to the two yellow chairs facing the desk, “Obviously, uh, not you Yvette. You’re not off the hook. Also there’s not enough chairs and right now I’m liking Fiona and Sasha a whole lot more than I’m liking you.”

While the Pandoran sister sat, Yvette was pushed towards Rhys by the guards, “What are you going to do to me?”

Arching his fingers further, Rhys’s smile grew a bit more sinister, “Were I to follow the habits of literally any of the past Hyperion CEOs I should toss you out an airlock or strangle you with your own nametag or… I don’t know, I’m not a creative torturer.”

Yvette blanched at that, not even having a good defense for herself, “R-Rhys we’ve known each other since col-”

He raised a hand to silence her, “However, I like to think I’m a reasonable man.”

“Oh, thank god,” Yvette panted out, hand over her heart, “I knew you were better tha-”

“Don’t get too comfy,” Rhys said, really not intending to let her finish any of her sentences, “You’ve still got crimes to answer for, I’m just not making the answering involve killing you.”

Yvette stood up straight, nodding and trying to look calm, “I… understand. Am I going to jail? How long?”

“No, no, no, look around. What’s missing?”

Yvette scanned the office before shrugging, “I don’t know.”

“About five foot, three inches. Brown hair, blue eyes. Glasses. Good with numbers and money.”

“Vaughn?” Yvette asked, “Wait… do you not know where Vaughn is?”

“No, no I don’t,” Rhys said, looking angrier behind the smile, “And, in case you forgot, it’s your fault for selling us out to Vasquez.”

“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”

“You’re going to go find him.”

Yvette stepped back, shaking her head, “You don’t mean-

“I’m sending you down to Pandora,” Rhys said, completely intending to continue cutting her off, “Of course, you’ll be given a shock collar so you don’t run off and will be expected to keep in contact. Given whatever needed to help you locate him though, of course.”

“What if I find him?” Yvette asked hopefully.

“You can come back and live on Helios. Demoted heavily, of course.”

“What if I don’t find him?”

“You stay on Pandora.”

“What… what if I find him dead?”

“God help you if you find him dead,” Rhys replied, leaning over the desk, “I may not be a creative torturer now but I can learn.”

Before Yvette could say anything in reply, Rhys waved her and the guards away.

After she was dragged through the doors, contemplating her life choices, Rhys turned his attention towards the sisters with a wide grin, “Pretty sweet, huh? You guys want some pizza? I can get pizza whenever I want now.”

The sisters looked at each other, uncertainly. Neither was sure if Yvette’s punishment was fair. Down there, she’d have no real way to survive. Let alone find Vaughn.

Laughing at their silence, Rhys smiled and pressed a button on his new desk, “I’ll just go ahead and get that pizza.”


	2. Even While We Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasha and Fiona fear the worst as Rhys insists on showing them around Helios.

The pizza tasted foul in the sister’s mouths as they listened to Rhys wax poetic about his newfound power.

Frequently, they made eye contact whenever Rhys’s ranting put his back to them. The message was loud and clear. It was scary and they wanted to leave Helios as soon as physically possible. But they knew they couldn’t do it in a way that would offend Rhys.

This… this was bad. Power corrupts and everything about Rhys just screams “corruptible”. And now he had power over them.

He kept demanding their attention throughout his excited chatter, wanting some feedback on his excited tirade. Do you like this? Does this seem good? What do you think? Should I do this? Should I do that?

It suddenly struck them that this was probably how Rhys usually was towards Vaughn.

So maybe this was okay? Maybe this is just how Rhys is.

What would Vaughn do, then?

Standing up, Sasha grabbed Rhys by his arm mid-pace, “Calm down, Rhys. There’s nothing rushing you now, right?”

That seemed to work, stopping him in place and ceasing his rambling. He looked almost confused for a second, being so abruptly pulled out of his thoughts, but pretty quickly he recovered with a nod and a smile, “Yeah, you’re right. Just… getting ahead of myself. By, like, a lot.”

Fiona followed her sister’s lead, “Yeah, why don’t we just finish the pizza then worry about what’s next?”

“Oh, I already know what’s directly next after we finish up here,” Rhys perked up, “The announcer is currently projecting the speech I already gave the company so we’re going to be killing two birds with one stone. A tour of Helios, both for everyone to see me and for you guys to see around.”

He looked very proud of himself as he finally sat down on his high backed chair, kicking his legs up on his desk as he scooped up another piece of pizza and took a bite. Gesturing for the sisters to do the same.

Reluctantly they did, still feeling incredibly apprehensive about this. Was this just Rhys in his element? They hoped to god it was. More than anything, the two of them wished Vaughn was there. The man had infinitely more Rhys-wrangling experience than them by a longshot.

Thinking on that, Sasha spoke up a few seconds later, “Do you… do you really think Yvette will find Vaughn?”

Rhys’s demeanor shifted immediately, voice growing cold, “She better hope she does.”

“Don’t you think it’d be a better idea to, you know, have someone who knows Pandora better do it?” Fiona asked, mostly out of concern for Vaughn’s well being than for Yvette’s, “I mean, she doesn’t really have the resources.”

Rhys nodded slowly, “You… you have a point.”

Fiona saw this as their out leaning forwards, “Well, we could always-”

“Call a Vault Hunter!” Rhys cut her off, bouncing forward and looking excited as he pulled the intercom over to him, “Who do you think would do better? Athena or Zer0? Zer0, right?”

But the sisters weren’t given time to answer before Rhys hit the button and the announcer asked, “Yes, sir?”

“Get ahold of Zer0 for me, tell them I have a job for them.”

“Right away, sir.”

He looked content as he leaned back once more to gnaw at his pizza while the sisters looked at each other uncertainly.

\- - -

Shortly later, they finished their meal and were swept out of the office and the tour commenced.

It felt weird, Rhys with a hand on each of their shoulders and steering them around. They tried to justify it as not wanting them to get lost but the crowds parted and gave them a wide berth as they walked.

The Hyperion underlings were far too ready to suck up to Rhys. Voices called out to him, claiming to know him.

And oh, was the man lapping it up. It really did seem like he knew some of these people addressing them individually both negatively and positively. Slight jabs and mild threats of being demoted if they don’t ‘shape up’ for the ones he disliked. Smiles, nods and finger guns at the ones he did.

There didn’t seem to be anyone he was truly connected to though. No one he stopped and talked to. Just formalities.

Rhys was mostly engaged with talking to them as the hallways opened up into a massive hub area, “You can learn just about anything you need from this area. Lots of people who can help you, lots of maps, lots of guides. All the branches off are full of stores and restaurants better than anything that exists anywhere on Pandora. Also, it’s just kind of nice to sit around here and people watch.”

They had to admit it was impressive. They were far too used to the scrappy, patchwork cities on Pandora. Seeing a space station built with some of the finest technology in the world was almost intimidating. Looking at their friend, he was so obviously in his element. For a split second, the sisters understood why Hyperion would see Pandora as primitive. When you’re used to… to all THIS of course you’d look down on good old Pandoran juryrigging.

But the sisters thought this was all just a sugar coated prison especially as they looked out the windows into the cold but beautiful abyss of space.

For Rhys, there were no such thoughts as he continued to lead them to their next destination.

“This is the recreation area,” Rhys said, smiling widely as he swept his arm towards the various hallways which were labelled with different signs, “Just about anything you want is here. A gym, a pool, accommodations for multiple sports, an arcade, a bowling alley, laser tag, anything!”

It was painfully obvious he was trying to impress them now, his hand on their back escalating to his long arms being draped over their shoulders. His smile becoming more and more like a used gun salesman.

More than anything, it was so incredibly obvious he wanted their approval.

“It’s uh, really impressive in here,” Fiona said, trying to look in awe and not mild fear as she scanned what little of the huge space station they could see.

Sasha immediately knew what her sister was angling at. No reason to rattle Rhys’s cage when he was in a mood like this, “It’s really amazing, Rhys.”

“And it’s all mine now,” Rhys said, sounding very satisfied with their answers. Brief as they may be.

They assumed the tour was over but Rhys was continuing to shepherd them towards the area labelled “living quarters.” The sister exchanged a nervous glance as Rhys pulled them into it.

Trying not to overthink it, they tried to reason it away. Maybe there was something beyond it. Maybe Rhys just had a cool new CEO bachelor pad he wanted to show off. Maybe the rooms were just really, really nice to look at in general.

But deep down, both of them knew what was coming.

Rhys wanted them to stay.

The first floor they walked into had doors everywhere, really crammed in there. Hallway busy with people wandering to and from their rooms. It was only a glance before they was tugged towards the elevator. Peering out the window they could see the floors pass. As they ascended, the doors started spacing out more and more as the apartments got larger and larger and less and less people were walking around.

By the time they got to their floor, they could only see one door at a time and not a soul around.

Rhys looked downright smug as he stepped out with them into the hall, “You guys are really gonna love this. This is the nicest, most expensive floor. Of course. Most of them are vacant, only the elite get to live up here.”

“So this is where you're living now, I assume,” Fiona grimaced, trying to look happy for him but ultimately failing.

He didn’t notice though, pointing towards the end of the hall, “Oh, hell yeah, the executive suites are in the back and they're amazing. Tomorrow everything from my old apartment is being moved up here. Just gonna be living the standard CEO life tonight, you know?”

They didn't know so they just smiled and nodded.

But then things turned as they feared.

“The rooms I’ve got lined up for you two are a step down, just a little bit. I mean, it’s still going to be easily the nicest place you two have ever lived by like… such a ridiculous longshot. No offense. Maybe a little offense.”

“Rhys this is…” Fiona gestured vaguely trying to figure out the least dickish way to say this, “It’s a really amazing offer but…”

Giving her sister a break, Sasha cut in, “Pandora’s our home, Rhys. We’ll be more than happy to come visit you- frequently- but we don’t want to live up here.”

“Yeah it’s just… not where we’re supposed to be.”

Rhys’s emotion was indiscernible and his voice was blank, “But you’ll be happy here. I mean, this is an amazing opportunity I’m giving you here. Do you know how many Pandorans would literally kill to live up here?”

“What do you know about Pandorans?” Fiona shot back, unable to help herself.

The growing glare behind Rhys’s eyes broke at that, his confidence suddenly coming back as he brushed back his hair with a smile, “Look, you’re gonna at least try it for a few days.”

“I mean we’ll stay overnight,” Fiona bargained, “But then I think we should go. Maybe we can help look for Vaughn, we’re pretty good at figuring things out.”

“Well, uh, I’m charge of all the travel in and out of Helios,” Rhys’s smile strained, “So I think you can spare a few days. Got some jobs I want you to try out too. Grossly overpaying you, of course. I mean, we’re friends, right?”

The Pandoran sisters made eye contact before answering, “Yeah, we’re friends.”

“Good, good,” Rhys replied, finally relaxing as he pushed open the door to the massive but sparsely decorated room, “This one is connected to the one next door so I thought it’d be perfect for you two. You can rearrange things however you like, get some art, whatever. Oh! By the way.”

The sisters watched him dig into the pocket inside his vest, fishing out two reflective rectangles of plastic and handing them to the sisters. Looking at it, the cards had numbers on them and had their names on the corner.

“Those credit cards will get you anything you want on Helios, my treat,” Rhys said, gesturing proudly to himself, “I’ll let you get comfy though, for now. A couple days to get used to being up here, you’ll love it I promise.”

“This’ll… this’ll be fun,” Fiona placated him, patting him on the shoulder with a subtle push towards the door, “We’ve had a rough day though, we’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep.”

“I get it, I’ll get out of your hair,” Rhys nodded, happily waving over his shoulder as he disappeared off the front door, “If you need me, gilded double doors at the middle of the loop. Night!”

“Goodnight,” the sisters said in unison as the door slammed behind him.

Fiona pressed her ear against the door, listening to Rhys’s heeled boots click away down the wide, empty hallway on the other side. The second she could be sure he was out of earshot her wide green eyes whipped wildly over to her sister, ”We are fucked, we are so fucked.”

Like flipping a switch Sasha started pacing, holding onto her head, “Oh my god, we’re gonna die up here. He’s going full Hyperion!”

“Okay, okay, let’s calm down and think this out,” Fiona said, holding out a hand a trying to rationalize this away, “Maybe this is just Rhys on Helios. We don’t know what he was like when he was up here, maybe this will all even out. He’s, at worst, just kind of a dick. Not a monster, not going to hurt us.”

“God I wish Vaughn was here!” Sasha yelled, tugging at a couple fistfuls of dreads, “He’s known Rhys since like… I don’t know! Forever?! He could tell us if this is normal. Hell, he could probably talk Rhys into letting us go.”

“I know, I know, but Vaughn isn’t here,” Fiona replied.

“God, I hope Yvette finds him…”

“She’s not gonna but well… Zer0’s going to find him. One way or another.”

Collapsing on the bed, elbows resting on her legs she looked wearily at her sister, “Do you think…”

“I think he’s alive,” Fiona said with a confidence that made Sasha smile slightly, “Vaughn’s a weird mix of physically strong and emotionally weak. At worst I think it’ll just toughen him up. Plus, unlike Rhys, he’s not suicidally stupid.”

“Well… I hope Zer0 finds him soon…”

“Me too.”

That night the sisters didn’t split into the two different rooms. Sasha just dragged in the sheets and pillows from the second bed, making herself a sleepy burrito next to her sister who was soon to be sprawled out like a crime scene cliche.

Hearing her sister snoozing next to her, Fiona laid on her back and stared at the ceiling. Having Sasha sleeping in the same bed reminded her of when she would get nightmares as a little girl. It seemed like she was, actually.

Fiona tucked the blanket tighter around her sister before rolling over and falling into a fitful sleep herself.


	3. It's Our Own Remorse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys tries to get the sisters situated in their new jobs on Helios, to mixed success.

For a few days things almost reached a level of normal, outside of the fact Rhys was essentially keeping them prisoner.

It was nearly comfortable, as Rhys settled into his new position as Hyperion CEO. Granted, he was being a bit extra smug but nothing unmanageable. He took them to his favorite places on the station. Hearing him happily talk about his life on Helios before was making the prospect of being trapped here a little less scary. Especially when he shared memories about Vaughn.

Sasha found herself comforting her sister, insisting Rhys had just been a little overly excited. Things are going to be fine. He’s just going a little overboard, he’ll calm down.

But things were not made to last. After a few days, Rhys informed them that their first days were coming up. Sasha’d start first, then Fiona.

Pulling on the outfit Rhys had helped her pick out, Sasha looked at herself in the mirror. She’d managed to talk Rhys out of a teal outfit, definitely not her color, but the yellow one wasn’t tremendously fitting either.

Uncomfortably restrictive too, she thought as she tugged at the collar.

Giving her sister a quick hug, Sasha made her way to Rhys’s office. Walking in, she couldn’t help but notice he’d torn down the Jack busts and- thank god- hadn’t replaced them with busts of his own.

Passing the odd, geometric statues that stood in their place Sasha wondered if Rhys actually could run Hyperion different, better, less horrifically evil. Maybe.

The desk he’d given her was right inside his office, although by the door. Giving her some space. Looking around it, Rhys had already kind of decorated it for her. She recognized the photo sitting in a frame, taken right in the middle of their roadtrip. Rhys was off to the side, arm across Fiona’s shoulder so he could surreptitiously give Vaughn bunny ears. Sasha herself next to Vaughn, leaning her head against his with a smile. Loaderbot loomed behind them, holding Gortys up so she could be in the shot too.

Where had Gortys gone? They’d gotten separated when they’ been imprisoned.

Looking up, Sasha looked at Rhys. His desk felt so far away from hers as she shouted over to him, “Hey, uh, Rhys? Whatever happened to Gortys?”

“Gortys?” Rhys looked up, “Oh, she’s just kind of been wandering around Helios. She likes it but it’s made her damned near impossible to find. I could try to get her up here?”

Somehow the idea of seeing Gortys made Sasha feel a lot more relieved, “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Rhys leaned over his desk, pressing a button and telling whoever that odd loudspeaker woman is to tell Gortys to come up.

For a couple minutes they sat in silence, Rhys working on whatever he was doing and Sasha looking around her fancy desk. They’d really stocked this for her, she tried to start remembering where things are.

Wait, she wanted to leave. Why bother learning this?

She wasn’t allowed time to explore that thought before the familiar, spaced out clunking footsteps announced Gortys’s arrival. Pushing open the door, the tiny robot had a smile on her face, “Rhys! Sasha! I’ve missed you both soooooo much.”

Meeting her halfway, Sasha crouched down to let Gortys hug her tightly. Sasha grinning, “I’ve missed you too.”

“This place is amazing! Everyone is so nice to me!” Gortys went on, stomping around in little circles, “Rhys gave me this card thingy which means everyone lets me do anything! I bought lemonade!”

Sasha giggled behind her hand, still crouching a bit to be on Gortys’s level, “You can’t drink lemonade though.”

“I can’t!” Gortys happily exclaimed, “I gave it to a lady and told her she was pretty. Her name is Beatrice and she was sooooo happy!”

“I don’t know how I haven’t seen you the past few days,” Sasha said, gently rubbing the robot’s domed head, “We’ve been all around too.”

“Oh, I’ve been exploring!” Gortys nodded, “I’ve gone through each and every office and all the conference rooms!”

“She’s really been getting around,” Rhys laughed, “I can track where you guys are using the access cards and she has just been… almost disturbingly thorough.”

“I didn’t want to miss anything!” she chirped, clapping her hands with small metallic clangs, “But now I’ve been everywhere on Helios! But don’t you guys think we should be looking for the rest of me?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s one of the doohickeys in that case over there,” Rhys said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, “We’ll get it attached later since we don’t know what it’ll do yet.”

“But Rhys, it’s my job to find and open the vault.”

“Well, look at it this way. We’re having a vacation up here, We’ll finish your quest in a bit.”

Gortys’s usual cheer subdued a bit, wringing her tiny hands, “But Rhys, we-”

“-re going to do it in a bit,” Rhys said, cutting her off with that should have been a playful tone, “But right now, we’re all going to stay up here together.”

Sasha scrutinized his face, not liking the flashes of power crazy starting to leak into him again. She spoke up, not liking that she felt so trapped and unable to express how she really felt about all of this, “I’m kind of with her, Rhys. What if someone else finds a way to open the Vault without Gortys?”

Quietly, wordlessly, she also knew that if they go back on Pandora it would be all too easy to escape from Rhys. Even Handsome Jack himself didn’t have the power to hunt down singular people all that well on that hellscape.

He put his hand on her shoulder, looking self assured, “Don’t worry, we’re getting that Vault. I’m just hoping we can find Vaughn first. Find him, stabilize things up here, then we’ll get back to it.”

Although she really would have rather gotten a ‘oh yeah, Sasha you’re a genius let’s immediately go back down to Pandora and find that Vault’ the answer she got wasn’t that bad. Honestly, hearing Rhys actively want Vaughn to be there too was comforting. A thought for someone outside himself.

Now if only they could find Vaughn. Rhys left the two alone as he went back to his desk. The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully. It was weird for Sasha but stealthily watching Rhys it was very obvious this was normal for him.

Her day was a bit boring, mostly being handed stacks of paper to shuffle around the station by hand. Whatever he needed physically signed and couldn’t digitally send.

By the end of the day, both of them were pretty tired. Walking out of the office with Rhys felt almost normal. Not like, a Pandoran normal, but a Hyperion one. She could easily see this being Rhys and Vaughn’s normal. It was… kind of nice. Just walking her back to her apartment, chatting amicably.

Standing outside the door to her apartment, Sasha patted him on the arm, “Well, don’t know what you were doing but good work today.”

“You too, barely even got lost on the way to shipping,” Rhys joked.

“Shut up,” Sasha laughed, softly punching him in the chest, “See you tomorrow. Fiona’s first day, right?”

“Yep, looking forward to it. Got a big contract but I don’t think it’s anything she can’t handle.”

Feeling a bit better than she had since getting up here, Sasha gave him a quick one-armed hug then disappeared into her apartment. Intending to relay the day to her sister then pass out.

\- - -

Fiona was skeptical. Sasha’s review of her day didn’t console her.

More than anyone, Fiona knew her sister could sometimes get a little too trusting, just a touch, when it came to friends.

Standing next to Rhys, scrutinizing him out of the corner of her eye, Fiona felt a pit growing in her stomach. He was mostly the one talking in this negotiation due to her claim she mostly wanted to watch how it goes since she hasn’t quite done something like this before.

The Maliwan representative was polite enough but nothing seemed to taking. Every one of Rhys’s offers were shot down, the women demanding more and more for the collaboration they’d mutually proposed.

Things were escalating though as Rhys started getting clearly annoyed, “Look, Yolanda. Can I call you Yolanda? This is getting kind of just a little bit completely ridiculous right now. Let’s just settle on a reasonable number and get this done with.”

“Well, if you could stop lowballing us that would really help,” the woman seethed out, having had it just about up to here with him.

“I’m not lowballing you, this is a completely reasonable amount,” Rhys said, smacking at the papers in his hand with the back of the other, “You’re the one being unreasonable about this!”

“You’re the CEO of one of, if not the, biggest company in this solar system,” she said, orange nails digging into the briefcase perched on her lap, “You can certainly afford more than this.”

“This is a very, very small collaboration, one part, I don’t feel like I need to pay a king’s ransom for a single fucking part!” Rhys said, getting more and more irritated. Banging his metal hand on the table.

Standing up curtly, the woman imparted her final statement, “This conversation is over. Maliwan officials will be in touch when you decide to act like an adult instead of throwing a tantrum like a child.”

Her first part in this exchange was grabbing Rhys’s arm as he went to chase after her. It succeeded in keeping him from going and making an ass out of himself but the second the woman would be out of earshot he punched his desk hard enough to make a dent in it.

“Asshole…” he muttered to himself, starting to pace as he examined where metal fist had met metal table. Making sure he hadn’t damaged it.

Fiona didn’t know how to handle this at all, eventually sighing and trying to get him to calm down, “It’s not the end of the world, Rhys. Maybe you can even get ahold of someone higher up in Maliwan, get them to take the deal.”

“It’s a fair deal, right?” Rhys whipped around, seeking validation.

God, is this what it’s like to be Vaughn? It’s exhausting. Fiona shrugged, picking up and looking at the piece of paper on the table, “I don’t know, all of this is really above my head. These numbers really mean nothing to me.”

“Look, look, I’ll teach you, okay?” Rhys said, snatching it from her hand but before he could even start trying to point things out to her, she stopped him.

“Rhys, look, I just… this isn’t for me, okay?” Fiona said.

 

“What’s that mean?” Rhys accused.

“I’m just not built for this kind of work, it’s not for me.”

Rhys just narrowed his eyes at her, “But Sasha-”

“I’m not my sister, Rhys. We can have different thoughts. She seems pretty okay with working this… this corporate life but I just… I don’t like it.”

“Why not? It’s just your grifting but on a larger scale,” Rhys retorted.

“I don’t like the larger scale! I’m fine with making small scale grifts, living on the road. This whole… company v. company stuff? I just… please, Rhys. I don’t want to do this.”

She watched him size her up, disappointment extremely evident on his face. He’d been expecting her to go along with it like her sister. That had gone so well, he really didn’t get what it was that Fiona didn’t like so much.

After a long minute of silence, Rhys backed down from their staring contest. Looking away, down at the rejected proposal on the desk he sighed. Sounding defeated, he spoke, “Alright… you can… you can go, Fiona. I’m going to get back to work.”

He gestured to the door out of the conference room, to which she obliged. Pausing only at the door, “I’m sorry, Rhys. If it makes you feel better, I still consider you my friend.”

Nodding slowly, he sat back down on the large chair at the head of the table, “It’s okay. Go and just… take Sasha to lunch or something.”

Fiona paused when she got out of the room, catching the door just before it was about to close. Maybe she should invite Rhys to come with them to dinner. She’d feel better seeing him act normal, hopefully, and perhaps it could help cheer Rhys up.

But before Fiona could push the door back open she heard a familiar voice through the crack. Unable to stop herself and her dodgy nature, she leaned in to listen.

“An easy job then / Both a murder and a theft / What is your offer?”

“I know it’s not much of a challenge but it’s the principal of the thing,” she heard Rhys answer, “I was thinking about offering you what they turned down, does that sound good?”

“A decent offer / I have not had much to do / Nice to have something.”

Zer0.

When that fact sunk in Fiona took off.

Nearly knocking over a few other workers, her mind raced. She knew Rhys had been in contact with Zer0, having hired them to look for Vaughn but this was… this was something next level.

Breaking into an out-and-out sprint, Fiona ran back to her apartment.

She had to tell Sasha.


	4. I'll Be Right Behind You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas I wrote for my least possibly Christmas-y fanfic I'm working on lol.

“Well, what do you want me to do about that, Fiona?!” Sasha yelled back at her sister.

“Look, if he's ready to just straight up assassinate someone for minorly inconveniencing him what makes you think-” Fiona started before being cut off.

“I'm not saying what he did was right,” Sasha said, “But what are we going to do about that?”

“I don’t know, I think we just need to figure out how to get off this station without him finding out.”

“We can keep trying but I got ahold of the station plans while on a courier mission he gave me but there’s nothing. It’s almost like this space station was created in part by a crazy dictator who wanted absolute control over his workers. Oh wait, it did. Handsome Jackass built this place, you think it’s easy to get off it if whoever’s in charge doesn’t want you to?”

Sighing, Fiona collapsed back on the bed, “I don’t like inactivity. I hate this. I hate everything about this.”

“I know but all we can do right now is play Rhys’s little game,” Sasha said, patting her sister on the head, “Something will give. We’ve survived worse than this.”

“I guess…” Fiona said, rolling her head to stare out the window. Seeing Pandora so far away was… uncomfortable.

She never thought she’d say this, hell no one on her home planet ever thought this, but she missed her Pandora and hoped she could be back on it soon.

\- - -

Elsewhere, Rhys was stopping by his office. Settling into his chair, he looked at the contracts he’d forgotten to sign earlier. Rereading them before putting his stamp of approval on them.

A sudden, muffled voice surprised Rhys. His pen skittering to the ground as the voice started yelling his name. Half angry, half mocking. For a brief second, Rhys thought he was losing his mind as Jack’s voice started chastising him.

But then his eyes flicked down, to the door he’d thrown the broken ECHO device into.

Grabbing the handle, he pulled it out to find a still very, very disgruntled Jack glaring up at him.

“Hey stupid,” Jack said, “You miserable yet?”

“No, Jack, I’m doing fine. How about you?” Rhys said, leaning his head on a hand and smugly grinning.

“Boy, oh, boy, do I wish I had real flesh arms so I could wring your scrawny little neck.”

“So, how are you doing this thing… this annoying you’re-talking-again thing.”

Jack flickered but was still glaring at him, “I figured out how to turn the device on by my own ‘cause I’m great. Been listening to you and your dumb little friends for two days now. You know they hate you, right?”

“Actually, they hate you,” Rhys said, “But that’s pretty irrelevant. Remind me why I opened this drawer again?”

“Just figured I’d give you a little reminder, Rhysie,” Jack said, grin absolutely not extending to his eyes, “They’re definitely going to backstab you. Like, way faster than I even though because like ho-ho-holy shit buddy do they think you’re nucking futs!”

“Alright, I’ve had just about enough of you,” Rhys said, tapping on the handle of the drawer, “See you later, Jack. Or maybe never. Thinking about selling your desk because I’m minorly concerned what you did to and/or on it when you were still alive.”

Just as Jack opened his mouth to make some smart comment, Rhys slammed the drawer shut again.

\- - -

They couldn’t do much for the next month. It was uncomfortable, knowing they were trapped but they had to play his game. Fiona was particularly unhappy with this arrangement, Sasha adapting slightly better with the circumstances.

Rhys seemed to be mildly more stable as long as they played along but he was clearly a bit off kilter. Sasha seemed to think the way to handle this was to try and act like things were normal, trying to get Rhys to do fun, not-terrible things when he starts getting a little more… power hungry. Fiona started handling it by completely shutting down. Not as helpful but she knew if she opened her mouth she’d say exactly what she was thinking and getting angry at him definitely wasn’t going to help.

Sasha’s philosophy on this was “Vaughn will be found, he’ll be able to fix this. It’s not like Rhys is going to hurt us.” Fiona’s philosophy was “Rhys will absolutely kill us before Vaughn is found.”

One day, bright and early, the girls were awoken by a sudden alarm going off.

It took both of them a second to realize where it was coming from. Eventually, they managed to figure out that there had been phones left on the side tables for them.

Picking one up, emblazoned with an ‘F’ on the back, they saw a message telling them to meet him in his office. Immediately.

Looking at each other, neither of the women liked the sound of that.

Regardless, they got dressed in record time and headed up towards Rhys’s office.

Walking in they found Rhys with more chairs situated around his desk than usual. Three instead of the standard one. He gestured for them to take two of them before excitedly rubbing his hands together, “They’re coming!”

“Who is?” Fiona said, turning to watch Rhys walk past them with a wide smile on his face.

He didn’t answer, pressing the buzzer, “ETA on the VIP?”

“They’ll be up in a second, sir,” the secretary answered, “The docking bay is just about as far from your office as possible.”

“Rhys, what’s going on?” Sasha asked as she tried to wipe sleep from her eyes, “What time is it?”

He still didn’t answer but this time he didn’t have to. The second the door opened, Rhys barreled over whoever was in the front of the group based on the woman’s scream they heard. Returning, Rhys was carrying someone. For a second, neither of the women understood what was going on. Not recognizing the man until he was set down.

Although that honestly made sense. He looked completely different than the last time the sisters had seen him. His hair was long and pulled back into an almost comically small ponytail, just shy of a full beard, ripped and shirtless, glasses gone.

“Holy shit, Vaughn!” Sasha yelled, pushing herself out of the chair and running to smash into him nearly hard enough to knock him over. Grabbing his face Sasha got a better look at him, “Huh, I always thought you had green eyes like me and Fiona.”

“Nah, that was just the glasses,” Vaughn replied as Fiona got up to hug him tightly around the neck, “By the way, need those replaced. Can’t, uh, can’t see all that great.”

The women were surprised to watch Yvette be the one to walk through the door, “Alright, Rhys. I did it. I’m sure whatever job you have for me up here is terrible but I’m honestly just glad to be up here.”

Yvette reached for one of the chairs, but Rhys just grabbed her hand, “Don’t get comfy. I’ve already got another pod down to Pandora ready for you.”

“Wait, what?! Rhys, you told me if I found Vaughn-”

“Yeah, doesn’t it suck to be stabbed in the back?” Rhys beamed at her.

Before she could say anything else, Rhys put a hand on her back and started pushing her towards the exit again. The very security that had walked her up here grabbed her arms again, with difficulty as she fought them to curse at Rhys, “You son of a bitch! Fuck you, Rhys! I only did it because you were as good as dead anyways!”

“Yeah, and now you’re the one who’s good as dead anyways. Have fun!” Rhys said with a wave.

“Rhys, what are you doing?” Sasha protested, letting go of Vaughn to approach him, “You said-”

He just held up a hand to her, “And she said a lot of shit too.”

“This is fucking smarmy,” Fiona said, coming at him much more aggressively.

Rhys just glared her down and she could feel herself shutting down again. Both sisters looked to the newly regained Vaughn, looking for support. But they found him pointedly avoiding eye contact with them, moving closer to Rhys.

They were going to find no purchase there, that was obvious.

Looking at each other, then at Rhys happily draping himself over an at-most mildly uncomfortable Vaughn made them wonder if this really would help at all.

“I’m going to help them get here out of here,” Fiona said, trying to look as shifty as possible. But considering the security guard was struggling to contain her it seemed reasonable.

Rhs just nodded, “Yeah try to keep her from biting this guy’s ear off.”

“Yeah, yeah, no ear biting, got it,” Fiona nodded, shoving the guard and Yvette out. The second the door slammed behind them, Fiona shoved away the guard, “Scram, muscles, I’ve got it from here.”

The guard actually didn’t need to be told twice, taking the excuse to leave. Yvette looked incredulous at Fiona, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Well, right now, you and me are walking towards the escape pods,” Fiona said, hooking an arm around the other woman’s and starting to drag her, “Look, Rhys is… Rhys is acting weird. Frankly, you’ll be safer off of this space station.”

“Really? Because I’ve got a huge skag bite on my ankle that says otherwise?” Yvette shot back.

“I can help with that,” Fiona said, still beelining towards the elevator to the docking station, “When you get down to Pandora, you need to find Athena. It won’t be hard, just get to any fast travel station and go to ‘Janey’s Garage.’ Tell her Fiona sent you and tell her that Rhys has us trapped up here.”

“What do you mean Rhys has you trapped here? You seemed pretty buddy-buddy from what I just saw.”

Grabbing Yvette by her shoulders Fiona made eye contact, “Look, we have to play his game. Hell, the only reason I’m not cramming myself into the escape pod with you is I’m not leaving Sasha up here alone. Just find Athena and tell her. She’ll help you then she’ll help us.”

Yvette looked skeptical but nodded, “Fine, I’ll find Athena.”

“Look, I know I punched you before all this went down but thanks.”

“I guess I owe you a thanks too,” Yvette replied, “I just, uh, hope I can find Athena fast enough.”

“You will, it’ll be fine. Her or Janey. Janey can take you to Athena.”

\- - -

Getting Vaughn alone was now completely impossible, the sisters found.

No matter what, it was like Rhys was glued to his side, clinging like he was scared his best friend would disappear again.

For a solid week, they couldn’t find a single moment to talk to Vaughn alone about Rhys’s behavior. Watching them, they were confused if Vaughn just wasn’t noticing or didn’t care.

Or, worse yet, is this just normal Rhys-on-Helios behavior? Was he always this unhinged and just the sobering fear of being on Pandora making him into a more stable and rational human being?

The more they talked about in the privacy of their rooms the more they realized something worse.

Vaughn being here was making Rhys MORE aggressive.

Sasha had insisted that Vaughn’s reappearance would calm Rhys down but if anything having his longtime source of apparently unconditional support was making it worse. Which was, frankly, what Fiona had been thinking but not saying.

While Rhys was already calling for assassinations and sending people down to Pandora before Vaughn was here, everything was more now.

Sasha bore most of the witness to these events. The first day they had Vaughn back, Rhys already had gotten his friend a new tailored suit, shiny new glasses, and an overpaid, high ranking position. He seemed happy, running a hand through his hair. Rhys had made him trim it at least but Vaughn seemed to be continuing to grow it out.

Every night Sasha told Fiona how things always seemed to went. Vaughn would just sit on the desk, completely complicit in whatever Rhys did.

All sorts of things transpired. The second day Vaughn was back, Rhys gleefully invited old rivals and enemies into the office to dole out demotions and pay cuts. If anything, Vaughn seemed into that. A couple days later they rooted out some people protesting Rhys’s sudden promotion. Those ones were straight up sent down to Pandora, no questions asked.

The third thing Rhys tried to hide a bit from Sasha but she could hear it nonetheless. Uncomfortably noting that Rhys was in no way keeping it from Vaughn in the least, letting the man lean on his chair while he made another call to Zer0. This time, Rhys had a whole list of targets.

But at long last, they managed to get Vaughn alone. Rhys had a private meeting with someone from Torgue to discuss explosive weapons for Hyperion.

The sisters took this opportunity to latch onto Vaughn, dragging him to lunch.

He didn’t protest, smiling widely at them, “Hey, haven’t had any time alone with you guys since I got up here.”

Fully prepared to beat around the bush at least a tiny bit, Fiona patted him on the back, “Yeah, were you okay down on Pandora alone or did you see unspeakable horrors?”

There was a pause before they could answer, to pull a third chair up to a small table at the back of one of the many Hyperion cafes. A waitress over immediately to take their order, no doubt recognizing probably Vaughn.

“Little column A, little column B,” picking up where they left off, Vaughn continued, “I was able to get away from Vallory pretty easily, honestly. Just like, the one benefit of being small. Climbed out through a vent that I’m pretty sure she didn’t think I could fit in. How have things been up here?”

The sisters looked at each other, Sasha ready to sugarcoat it but Fiona wasn’t. Not one iota. Leaning on the small table she got close enough to make Vaughn give her a weird look, “Rhys won’t let us leave.”

“He told me you guys had jobs up here thou-” he started, leaning away a bit.

Fiona grabbed the front of his suit jacket and pulled him closer again, “Look, Sasha may be relatively okay with it but he’s acting weird, Vaughn. Unless… is he? Is this just normal Rhys behavior? The backstabbing? The assassinations?”

Really not happy with being manhandled, Vaughn pulled his suit out of her hand with ease and smoothing it back down, “Well, I won’t pretend it’s not weird that he won’t let you leave but he was, and probably still is, upset that I was missing. He just doesn’t want you guys to go missing too.”

Much more eager to believe Vaughn, Sasha looked relieved, “So do you think he’s going to let us go back to Pandora?”

“Probably, just give him some time,” Vaughn nodded, “He just wants to keep tabs on you guys for now, just let him be clingy for a bit. It always passes.”

“So Rhys being clingy is normal,” Fiona nodded, trying to find some sort of comfort in that, “But the… the assassinations and shit?”

Vaughn looked uncomfortable at that, not really saying much as the waitress came back with their drinks. He seemed to view the coffee as a suitable distraction, tossing away their question to thank the waitress and start drinking it.

The sisters weren’t letting up, this time Sasha asking, “Vaughn?”

“Look…” he started with a sign, “This is… just how things are up here.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Fiona replied, “Just how things are up here?”

“In Hyperion you do what you have to do to get to the top and stay at the top. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. Be it backstabbing, murder, assassination. Hell, some of us sleep our way to the top. Dodgy deals in a Helios back alley for personal gain. Stealing, both petty and felony grade. Embezzlement. Usually a combination of all or at least most of those things.”

“Fuck, Vaughn what have you…” Fiona started.

“You don’t want to know,” Vaughn cut her off, taking another drink, “I haven’t murdered someone, if that makes you feel better. Neither has Rhys.”

“Everything else though?” Fiona asked.

Sasha looked half amused, half horrified, “Holy shit, did you guys sleep your way to the top?”

“Oh, yeah, no. Rhys thinks he’s too good for that.”

“What about you?” Sasha asked, ignoring her sister rolling her eyes.

His face said it all as he raised his eyebrows and took another drink, “None of your business. Don’t ask too many guys about me, though.”

Fiona was rubbing at her temples by now while her sister giggled next to her, “I guess I can’t judge you considering my entire life has been spent as a con artist. But this is okay? You think Rhys is going to go back to normal? I just want to leave.”

“Just give him some time,” Vaughn nodded, “Just play along for a little while, he’ll even out.”

The sisters decided to take that as an answer. Either way they decided that acting like this was normal seemed to be the way to go for now. The rest of the lunch was adequately normal, some semblance of comfort in Vaughn just telling them more about his and Rhys’s lives before coming down to Pandora.

But on the other side of the food court, they were being watched.

\- - -

If there’s one thing Vaughn likes about this new arrangement, it’s the private dinners with Rhys nearly every night.

Sometimes Rhys had the sisters join them but more often than not it was just the two of them. It reminded Vaughn of their time in college together, nights spent passed out on a couch after eating enough pizza for a whole football team.

Tonight was no different. Vaughn walked into the wide, empty office with Rhys already sitting at the desk with their dinner for the night. Burgers, something nice and simple.

Vaughn liked that Rhys would even drag another chair to the same side of the desk for him so they could sit together. He smiled as Rhys got up to hug him tightly. Vaughn supposed the one upside to his time alone on Pandora was Rhys was even more affectionate towards him than usual.

Sitting down together, Rhys slid his plate over to him, “Had a nice day off?”

“Yeah, nice to get away from the bureaucracy of being CFO for a bit,” Vaughn smiled, “I love the title but it really does come with a lot of red tape.”

“You can always cut that all you want,” Rhys replied, face indiscernible, “It’s not like I’m going to hold you accountable for anything that doesn’t line up.”

“Yeah you’ve… you’ve always had my back,” Vaughn admitted.

Rhys was dead silent for a long moment before asking, voice cold and deadpan, “You’ll always have mine, right?”

“Of course, when have I not?” Vaughn asked.

That made Rhys smile, grabbing the arm of Vaughn’s chair and dragging him close enough to hug. Talking with his cheek pressed against the top of Vaughn’s head he borderline ordered, “Promise you’ll never leave me alone again. I don’t think I’d survive.”

“I promise,” Vaughn answered, completely unfazed by his best friend’s behavior as he hugged him tightly back, “As long as you want me here, I will be.”

When Rhys pulled away though, settling back into his chair, Vaughn noticed something hanging off the hip of his pants. Normally hidden by the long suit jacket he’s been wearing. A holster with a vintage Hyperion black and red pistol in it.


	5. Where The Light Won’t Find You

“Is it gonna work?” Sasha said, hawking over Fiona’s shoulder as she fiddled with the back of the opened device.

“I don’t know but if you keep breathing down my neck, it’s not gonna even get done. Back up.”

Fiona gently pushed her sister away as she looked closer. Just a tweak here and a twist there and the phone should work. She’d found the ECHOnet code for Janey’s garage, if she could just break the digital barrier…

With a loud bark of laughter, Fiona held the phone up victoriously, “There!”

“You did it?” Sasha said, excitedly reaching for it, “We can call off Helios?!”

“Yes!” Fiona said, already poking the number into it, “Thank god, Athena will know what to do!”

\- - -

It had been three months. Three months of being trapped on Helios by Rhys.

He hadn’t gotten better and Vaughn wasn’t doing a damned thing to stop him.

While he kept Sasha on as his assistant but dropped Fiona’s job pretty quickly. He still let her keep the access card and salary, despite the fact she wasn’t doing anything for hm.

Fiona spent her days wandering Helios, bored out of her mind. She was pretty actively trying to avoid Rhys but he was very insistent on keeping her around him. Whenever he was off hours he’d come and find her, Sasha and Vaughn in tow.

It was uncomfortable. Playing house with their increasingly unhinged friend.

The first month wasn’t too much different from his behavior since Vaughn first showed up. General douchebaggery but nothing too egregious. There was little beyond shaping Hyperion’s landscape to his liking.

The second month things were escalating. Some workers seemed to protest to Rhys’s sudden rise, presumably the ones he’d pissed off and the ones who cared about the ones he’d pissed off. His retaliation against those was more aggressive. He got a lot of them blasted down to Pandora and had started making company wide announcements himself.

The third month he started getting… paranoid. Beginning to accuse people somewhat randomly of conspiring behind his back. People were getting afraid to speak up around him and Sasha was finding it increasingly difficult to act like this was going to be okay.

But a few days ago he’d shown a level of unstable they couldn’t just abide anymore.

They’d followed the instructions he’d sent them on their phones, into a more technical area of Helio which they’d never seen before.

Ducking her head to avoid a pipe, Fiona whispered a question to her sister, “You ever been down here?”

Sasha only shook her head, “No, I thought only maintenance workers came in here.”

But ahead of them, down some stairs to an ominous looking device. Standing in front of it, alone, was Vaughn. He looked surprised when they walked in, breaking his face from the abnormally solemn look he’d had on. His eyes almost seemed to plead with them to leave, “What're… what’re you guys doing here?”

“Rhys told us to come,” Sasha said, looking at the massive metal orb in front of them, “Where is here?”

Vaughn looked like he didn’t want to answer, “This is, uh, the Eye of Helios.”

“Oh, so we’re in the center part?” Fiona asked, stepping closer towards the metal ball, “Makes sense, the instructions were a bit… unclear where we were going. Now I guess the question is why? What's this place for?”

“Rhys is… gonna be here soon. I’ll let him tell you more about it, okay?” Vaughn mumbled, comfortably eyeing the ball.

As he said, it was only a minute or so before Rhys came borderline jogging in, “Sorry! Got held up in a meeting.”

“It’s fine, what’s going on?” Sasha asked, looking around, “What’s up with this place?”

Rhys looked even more cocksure than usual as he approached the console in front of it, “I just wanted to show you guys something, I honestly kinda forgot about this thing for a while there. Can’t believe I waited so long to show you guys the Eye of Helios. Hell, can’t believe I waited so long to fire this bad boy up.”

They curiously watched as he pressed some buttons but their eyes were quickly dragged upwards. Above them, the orb started spinning and cracked open its shell. Inside, was an eye. Not a real one, mind you, but a mechanical one. Electricity crackling out of the iris-like opening as the thing seemed to peer straight forward, through the opening, towards Pandora.

Suddenly, it struck Fiona and Sasha. This odd device in the center of Helios, pointed down at the planet below.

They’d forgotten about the giant fucking laser completely.

Both girls blanched, Vaughn nervously watching them out of the side of his eye.

Rhys seemed unconcerned that the sisters looked terrified as he tried to excitedly wave them over, “So, got anything you’d like to wipe off the face of Pandora? This bad boy used to just be able to shoot Elpis but it can hit Pandora now too. Send some LoaderBot with it to clean up survivors too.”

They didn’t even have an answer, just a slack jawed shaking of their head.

However, Rhys looked much more sure of himself as he punched in some coordinates, “Well, I’ll just pick one of the more murderous bandit camps down there. Eating babies, stabbing kittens, these scumbags do it all.”

The huge fake eyeball moved, adjusting itself to match those coordinates. Backing away from it, Fiona found herself grabbing onto Sasha and Vaughn’s arms to drag them away from the laser. Instinctively pulling them closer as it fired, a blinding blast which flew over Rhys’s head. A little while later smashing into the surface of Pandora.

As quickly as the light had filled the room it disappeared, leaving everyone in the room dumbstruck.

For a split second, the sisters thought maybe this would bring Rhys out of his delusions but after a long silence his sudden laughter filled the room before he whirled around, hands upturned into claws in front of him, “Holy shit, was that the coolest shit ever or the coolest shit ever?!”

Even Vaughn looked uncomfortable, half hiding the two women behind him as he just looked at Rhys wordlessly.

While the sister hadn’t noticed it, Vaughn could only think that the gun hidden on his friend’s hip that he been bugging him might the least of his worries.

\- - -

But now, sitting on the soft bed in Fiona’s room, far far away from the deadly laser beam and waiting for the ringing phone, their freedom from Rhys felt so incredibly close. They knew after they saw that they needed to get going as fast as possible.

After what seemed like forever, an accented voice sang through the phone, “Janey’s Garage! Catchphrase pending! How can I help you?”

“Janey, you have no fucking idea how glad I am to hear your voice,” Fiona gasped out, holding onto her shirt over her heart, “But I need to talk to Athena, right now.”

“Oh, alright Fiona,” Janey said, trying not to sound disappointed, “I’ll go get her.”

After a second they heard the phone being handed over with a ‘it’s Fiona’ from Janey and Athena’s stern voice came over the line, “Where the hell have you been? Are you still on Helios?”

Fiona honestly felt like crying, partially from relief but partially from stress, “Athena, holy fuck, you cannot believe the shit we’re in. Yvette found you right? You know what’s going on?”

“Is Rhys still keeping you guys there?” Athena asked before answering herself, “Dumb question, you probably wouldn’t be calling me and sounding terrified if you weren’t still trapped. Has the situation gotten worse?”

Not even bothering to ask if the situation had possibly improved. Always a realist.

“It… it has,” Fiona said, “He’s started using-”

“The Eye of Helios, we know,” Athena cut her off, “Completely decimated a bandit town. Place is still crawling with beat up LoaderBots, wandering the fucking ghost town he’s made.”

“We want off the station, ASAP,” Fiona nodded, “If he’s starting to shoot at Pandora, I don’t want to be a part of it.”

“I don’t blame you, I want you guys down here and safe,” Athena replied, “I know he’s using the cannon but is he… there’s no way to say this that won’t sound weird. Was he… overly excited about using it?”

“Ecstatic, like a kid in a candy shop.”

“You need to get off there, now.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

There was a sudden sound of the device on Athena’s end being handed over. A third woman’s voice came through, “It’s Yvette now. Listen, I imagine Rhys gave you some kind of access pass, right?”

“Yeah but it’s pretty limited, we can get into all the rec areas but nothing else.”

“Do you think you could figure out where one is?” Yvette asked, “I know where some more difficult ones are but like… if you knew someone with one it’d be a lot easier to nick it from them than to break into requisitions.”

“Gortys has one!” Sasha spoke up, “She’s been travelling all over the station. Rhys probably gave it to her because like, what’s the harm in giving Gortys that? She could be in a room on fire and she’d probably just start smiling and dancing.”

“Oh yeah! It’d be ridiculously easy to get that off her,” Fiona smiled.

Yvette spoke again, “Get ahold of that, it’ll even let you into the escape pod bay and activate it. They’re intended to belong to incredibly high level employees so when they mean full access they mean full access. Even access off the station.”

“What about once we’re in there? Where do the pods drop?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Athena interrupted, “Rhys has made the Vault Hunters as a collective… very nervous. I’m on good terms with the vast majority of them, just get on Pandora and find virtually any Vault Hunter. They’ll probably be willing to help you. For a fee but you can offer a favor from me.”

“Alright, get the card, get back to Pandora, get a Vault Hunter.”

\- - -

After hanging up, the sisters decided that the very next morning they would do this.

Waking up early, they knew Gortys always hung around the food court during breakfast, lunch and dinner. She liked to say hi to all the people.

Getting dressed and walking into her sister’s room, Sasha brought up an issue, “Fiona… what about Vaughn and Gortys? Are we just… gonna leave them up here?”

“Honestly, Gortys is happy and safe here,” Fiona replied, “I think it’s probably best for her if she stays up here.”

Sasha waited for the other half of the answer but evidently wasn’t getting it as Fiona avoided eye contact. Undaunted, she asked again, “What about Vaughn?”

“Look… he’s not going to leave Rhys,” Fiona replied, agitation rising in her voice, “I don’t like the idea of leaving him here either but… it’s where he belongs. He’s Hyperion too and if anything, it’s maybe a little bit helpful to us if there’s someone, anyone keeping Rhys in check.”

“He doesn’t have Rhys in check at all!” Sasha protested.

“Vaughn could at least talk Rhys out of trying to hunt us down, I fully believe that.”

There was a long, dead silence as the sisters stared each other down.

“I want to try at least.”

Fiona groaned, “That’s a terrible idea.”

“Maybe so but I can’t in good conscious leave Vaughn here, in danger, without at least trying to convince him to come.”

“Fine, we can stop by his room first but we need to limit the time to virtually nothing. We need to get Gortys, get the pass, get the fuck out. Deal?”

“Deal,” Sasha grunted, pushing past her sister to all but run to Vaughn’s room.

\- - -

“You’re doing what?” Vaughn said, groggily wiping sleep from his eyes.

Rhys always let Vaughn sleep in, ever since he was brought back to Helios. Spoiling him, in a way, that he wasn’t required to come in to work until later.

“We’re leaving,” Sasha repeated herself, “And we want you to come with.”

Vaughn was quiet as the words finally started sinking in. Looking up at her he just shook his head, “Look, being up here is where I’m supposed to be.”

Fiona thought this was stupid but if they were doing stupid she might as well go all in, “Rhys is becoming more dangerous and you know it.”

“Look, I’ve always been ready for this. I know what climbing the Hyperion ladder means, even if you don’t,” Vaughn replied, looking at the best agitated, at the very worst angry, “This is a situation I mentally have been preparing myself for since college. I know what I am, Fiona.”

“And that is?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“I’m a lackey,” Vaughn plainly replied, “My job is to hover around other more powerful people and help. I’m the moon to Rhys's planet. Not about to leave orbit now that things are going the way they’re supposed to.”

“Is there literally anything we could say to convince you otherwise?” Sasha asked.

Before he could answer, Fiona grabbed him by the shoulder, “More importantly, are you going to tell Rhys?”

“There is nothing you could tell me that would change my mind,” Vaughn answered Sasha before pushing Fiona’s hand off of himself, “I… I won’t tell Rhys you’re leaving. I guess I owe you that much, as my friends.”

He was nearly knocked over as Sasha all but slammed into him for a tight hug, one that very evidently said she thought she’d never see him again. Patting her back, he knew this was probably goodbye too.

When released by Sasha, Vaughn only found himself crushed by Fiona. Her hug a lot more awkward but no less affectionate and lingering.

A second later he two of them said goodbye, trying to hide the tears in their eyes.

\- - -

Locating Gortys was similarly easy but admittedly easier to handle.

While they were fond of the sweet little bot, it was a bit different than leaving their very human, very killable friend.

Getting the key from her was even easier, Fiona just straight up asked and the bot handed it over.

“This feels… too easy,” Sasha said, hanging onto her sister’s sleeve as they powerwalked away from the food court and towards the escape pods.

Fiona only picked up the pace, “Sometimes a heist just goes off well. Don’t look a gift skag in the mouth, just keep walking.”

\- - -

Their footsteps echoed through the empty hallway towards the escape pods, unlocked by the newly obtained access card.

Cold and vacant, the area was fairly rarely used and it showed. Everything was pristine, looking like no one had touched anything in months other than one very determined janitor.

But as they turned the corner to the escape pods and they realized there was more than just two peoples’ worth of footsteps following them. Longer steps with the distinct sound of clunky heels versus their short, fast steps.

Grabbing her sister’s hand, Fiona didn’t want to look back but the familiar voice called out to them as he far too easily caught up to them, “What are you two doing?”

Still holding on tightly, Fiona slowly turned to look up at Rhys. She supposed he was trying to look non-combative but his eyes were ice cold as the scrutinized the two of them. Fiona had no good answer, the truth was all there was, “Rhys, we’re leaving.”

It was alarming how quickly any pretense of trying to not look angry melted from his face, openly glaring now, “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Why are we doing this to you?!” Fiona shot back, starting to move her sister behind her, “Why are you doing this to us?! You think we wanted to have to try and sneak away in the dark of the night?”

“It’s the middle of the day,” Rhys seethed back.

“Whatever! There’s no sun! It could be daybreak and we wouldn’t know!”

“Well if you didn’t want to sneak away you shouldn’t have,” he crossed his arms.

Fiona was having none of this, “You’ve created this situation yourself, Rhys. We had no problem with you being here and us coming to visit we just don’t want to live up here!”

“And why not?” Rhys said, flinging his arms out wide, “Pandora is a smoldering shithole, Helios is among the finest accommodations in the galaxy. I even gave you jobs-”

“We didn’t want the jobs!” Fiona shouted back, “We don’t want to be Hyperion corporate ladder climbers, that’s not us!”

“You didn’t have to climb any ladders, if anything I built you an elevator. Sasha seemed happy enough, right?” he said, turning his attention to the younger sister.

Nudging her way past her sister, Sasha finally spoke up, “I didn’t… hate it like Fiona does but I still just want to go home, Rhys. I want to be on firm ground with the sun shining down on me.”

Sasha looked surprised as Rhys suddenly grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him and returning to trying to look non threatening, “Helios is completely safe, yeah it’s not on the ground but it’s not like it’s going to be crashing into Pandora anytime soon. There’s a sunroom, have you never been in there? It’s one of the rooms off to the side of the rec area.”

Starting to back away, Rhys began to drag Sasha away from the escape pods that were so tantalizingly close. He started to mumble something to Sasha which her sister couldn’t fully hear but could piece together well enough. Promises of a raise, improvements to her working conditions, talking about all the fun things he wanted to add to Helios.

Before he could take her any further, Fiona grabbed Sasha’s other arm and easily ripping her out of his weaker grip, “Rhys, you’re killing people! Athena said that bandit camp you shot at is salted earth now, crawling with half-destroyed LoaderBots!”

Fiona had expected more in the way of physical retaliation when she pulled her sister away but Rhys was just standing stockstill as he stared at them. He finally spoke, “How the fuck were you talking to Athena?”

Slowly, Fiona just started shaking her head as she stepped backwards towards the escape pods. Sasha trailing after her, pulled along by her sister. Fiona tried to sound confident but her voice faltered, “Just let us go.”

“You think I’m fucking nuts,” Rhys’s voice coldly cut the air, “Are you gonna try and kill me? Is that why you’re talking to Athena?”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Fiona squinted at him, “We don’t want you dead, we just want to leave. We’re going to go and stay with Athena, she’s already housing Yvette she doesn’t min-”

“Oh, because Yvette has no reason to want me dead,” Rhys gritted his teeth, “I’m not stupid, you’re all grouping up. Just because you yourself isn’t going to kill me doesn’t mean-”

“Rhys! We’re not trying to kill you! You’re acting crazy!” Sasha stepped forward.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP,” his voice echoed in the empty hallway. Punctuated by the sound of Rhys turning off the safety as he whipped out a gun, previously hidden by his jacket.

“Fuck!” Fiona yelled, “Put that the fuck away, what are you doing?! Don’t fucking point a gun at something unless you want it dead!”

“Give me Gortys’s key and get the fuck away from the escape pods,” Rhys ordered, ignoring her and jerking the gun to point back towards the main hub, “Come back with me to my office and we’ll talk this out like adults.”

The gun quivered but was still firmly pointed at Sasha’s forehead as she stuttered, “R-Rhys please, put the gun down. This is insan-”

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Rhys screamed, grip tightening.

Like a thundercrack, the gunshot reverberated in the stillness of the almost empty hallway.

With a yelp, Sasha crashed into the wall of hallway facefirst. Unharmed except for a bruise already forming on the cheek that had collided with it. Dazed, she looked up at Rhys. Gun lowered to his side.

But he wasn’t looking back at her, mouth agape as he stared deadeyed at what he’d done.

Pushing herself onto her knees, Sasha froze. Tears starting to stream down her face before she could even believe what she was looking at.

Fiona lay there lifeless, green eyes empty as they stared into forever.

A single, precise bullet wound right in the center of her forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end scene to this chapter (and the other half which will be in the beginning of the next chapter) was the central point of this entire fic and the first I created in my mind. I just knew I had to come up with a whole story to put it into because there's few things I love more than writing a good death scene.


	6. The Walls Come Tumbling Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one, much shorter epilogue left. I'm hoping to get it done by tonight/tomorrow so I'll post that customary "I wrote two chapters in a day!!" message at the beginning if I do. For all three people reading this lol.

Sudden as the crack of a whip, Sasha’s screams filled the empty hallway.

Rhys stood dead still, just wordlessly watching Sasha crawl over to her sister.

Blood soaked into the knees of Sasha’s pants as she hovered next to her, hands simultaneously reaching out but refusing to touch her unmoving body.

All she was able to do was continue to scream.

Slowly, Rhys came back to reality. The gun clattered to the ground with a loud clanging of metal-on-metal. Agape mouth finally closing.

He didn’t know what to do.

The screams only making his mind more frantic as it all sunk in.

Sasha’s screams stopped only to be interrupted by a yelp as she was suddenly, unceremoniously dragged to her feet. Before she could even react to that or just start screaming again a cold metal hand firmly and painfully clamped over her mouth.

It clicked and she started fighting against Rhys as she felt him start dragging her away from Fiona’s body. From the pod bay. From everything she’s ever known and her only hope for freedom. Adrenaline making him numb to her blows to his torso and legs.

Bursting out the doors, Rhys looked around frantically. He needed somewhere where no one would be.

Looking down, his suit was splattered with blood. Bright red against the yellow vest. One handedly he tried to button his black jacket over it to no avail. Fuck, no one better walk in on this. Have to keep it quiet.

The dark thought that it probably wasn’t that unusual for Hyperion workers to see their CEO covered in blood intruded in his mind. A sharp elbow in the gut didn’t let him ruminate on that thought, grunting and making him tighten his robotic grip on Sasha’s face.

Kicking open the door to a storage room, Rhys found it perfect. With some difficulty, he got Sasha on one of the extra chairs there. Pinning her down with one leg as he found just the perfect thing; extension cords. Too panicked to fight back properly, Sasha had her arms forced behind her back and secured in place.

Stepping back, Rhys just stood there panting.

His eyes met Sasha’s for the first time since.

Empty, devoid of anything, except for pointed hatred.

“Look, Sasha-” Rhys started.

“If I’m ever free, ever again,” Sasha cut him off, voice cold and quiet but each words sharply clear, “I will fucking kill you. Some way, somehow, I’ll fucking kill you.”

Rhys had no answer to that.

\- - -

The trip to his office had been quick, Rhys just short of sprinting through the station until he was alone. Not wanting anyone to notice the blood.

Hands shaking he hit the assist button, talking to whoever was on the other side, “This is a matter of uh, secrecy. Please remove the woman from the supply storage room outside the pod bay and take her to Room 22 on the Executive Floor. Ensure that she cannot leave the room by whatever means are most feasible. Also, remove the body from inside the pod bay. Store in the morgue for now.”

Letting go of the button and leaning back into his chair he stared at the ceiling.

What had he done?

From the drawer he hears Jack start to tauntingly yell his name, trying to get his attention.

“SHUT UP,” was Rhys’s only answer as he kicked the drawer as hard as he could, heavily denting the metal. It made Jack stop talking though so mission accomplished.

\- - -

Rhys had never looked worse in his entire life. He scared himself the next morning, looking into the mirror after his shower. Not even recognizing his reflection.

Deathly pale, dark circles under his dead eyes, mouth set in a grimace.

Sitting at his desk he knew he looked no better under harsh office lighting but hopefully the room’s general darkness could make him look at least adequately normal.

But Vaughn knew better.

Walking in, he’d already prepped himself to comfort his friend.

Admittedly, Rhys looked way worse than Vaughn would have thought but walked over and hugged his friend tightly against his chest. Patting the over-gelled hair, Vaughn asked, “They got off the station didn’t they? Had a feeling they were going to try and leave, one way or another.”

Unbeknownst to him, it was very much in the “another” category for Fiona.

Rhys only stayed quiet, reaching up to tightly return the hug.

For the next month, Vaughn made a point of sticking by Rhys’s side even more than usual. Aside from Rhys disappearing periodically, they were always together.

Assigning his normal duties to underlings, Vaughn spent Rhys’s shortened work days sitting next to him. Chair pulled over from what had been Sasha’s desk. Nights, Vaughn just tried to keep Rhys’s mind off of it. Even falling asleep on his couch after long movie marathons together. Blanket tucked tightly around him.

It was weird though. He’d definitely known Rhys long enough to see him go through loss but this was… something was different. He was shut down and nearly unresponsive. Wouldn’t even laugh at the terrible buddy comedies he usually loved.

Like a zombie, he just watched Rhys shuffle through life.

Something started nagging at the back of Vaughn’s mind. Yelling at him, screaming.

That night, Vaughn told Rhys he just wanted a night to sleep in his own bed which the man didn’t question at all. They’d been roommates for years in college, Rhys knew all too well that Vaughn deeply valued his alone time.

But he wasn’t quite alone as he dialed a number on his phone. Not locked to the station like Fiona and Sasha, he was able to call Janey’s Garage with no struggle. Number plucked from the ECHOnet.

“Janey’s Garage! Catchphrase pending! How can I help you?” he heard her chirp.

“Janey, it’s Vaughn,” he said, not beating around the bush, “Can I talk to Athena?”

“Sure… sure…” Janey said, sounding sorely disappointed, “I’ll get her for you.”

A few seconds later, Athena’s voice came through, “Vaughn?”

“Hey Athena,” Vaughn said, suddenly feeling awkward, “Look, uh, things have been… weird. Up here.”

“I know,” Athena answered, “Fiona told me.”

Hope rose in him a bit, “So you’ve heard from her then? They told me they were going back to Pandora, I figured if they made it down there they’d want to find you.”

“I haven’t heard from her for a month,” Athena replied, “I’m… worried. Really worried. Last time we talked we penned a plan to get them off Helios. Steal a card and-”

“Go to the escape pods…” Vaughn finished.

There was a long silence before Athena asked, “So they told you about it. Do you think… they’re still on the station?”

“I’m… I’m going to snoop around,” Vaughn replied, quiet as a mouse, “I’ll… call you later Athena.”

“The second you find anything,” Athena demanded.

Hanging up, Vaughn pushed himself off his couch. He had to know, right now. Rhys would be dead asleep, before daybreak he had to find out.

Had the Pandoran sisters made it off Helios?

First stop, the pod bay.

Helios was all but dead quiet, only a few workers milling about for late night snacks.

Reaching the outside of the bay, Vaughn clicked away on the computer. Entering his credentials and accessing the launch history. His stomach dropped as he saw that no pods had been launched in over two months.

Second stop, the Helios jail.

If Rhys had found out, he might have imprisoned them. Vaughn could see that. The lazy security guard barely looked up at him before waving him in.

However, the longer and further in Vaughn got the chance of the sisters being here lessened. Peering into each cell he confirmed it. They definitely weren’t there.

Third stop, their rooms.

It seemed too simple but as he slid his all access card to Fiona’s room he didn’t know what else he could do.

Stepping in, the room was uncomfortably quiet. What little Fiona had bought while on Helios was littered around the room but nothing she would have really cared about keeping. Vaughn hated the idea of snooping but he started looking around for any sign that the elder sister had been here recently.

But it was truly abandoned. He was no detective but what little intuition he had told him no one had been in here.

Grabbing the handle to the door connecting Fiona’s room to Vaughn felt uneasy but opened it nonetheless.

The second the door opened wide enough for him to squeeze through something glass shattered about a foot over his head. Yelling, Vaughn ducked down as shards mercifully missed him as they flew into Fiona’s room behind him.

“V-Vaughn?” a raspy voice asked him.

Looking up, completely shocked, Vaughn saw her.

Sasha didn’t look so good. It looked like she’d abruptly dropped a lot of weight, eyes looking more sunken and hollow than even Rhys’s. Her clothes were crumpled, hair looking limp. She was looking at him like she’d seen a ghost.

“Sasha?” Vaughn asked, very quickly closing the gap between the two of them.

As she got up and ran to him there was a clanging noise, stopping only when she collapsed into his arms, sobbing.

Dumbstruck, he just held her up as he realized there was a thick, heavy metal cuff around her ankle. A long, heavy chain attaching her to her bed. Despite her emaciated appearance, there was a large untouched meal next to the bed.

“What the hell happened?” Vaughn asked, trying to help her back on her feet, “Why did you throw that at me?”

“I thought it was Rhys coming in,” Sasha choked out, grabbing at Vaughn’s head in a weird gratitude, “I’m really, really glad you’re super short and he’s super tall right now.”

“Uhm, you’re welcome?” Vaughn borderline asked, still dazed, “What the hell happened here? Why are you trying to smash Rhys’s skull in?”

Even standing she still kept Vaughn firmly crushed into her shoulder, tears rolling down her face, “Fiona’s dead. Rhys shot her in the head.”

It was like the temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees in a heartbeat. His grip on Sasha’s shirt tightened, “Are you… how did… how the hell did that happen?”

“When we tried to leave Rhys cornered us and he was just… god, things escalated so fast. It went from “hey, we want to leave” to “Rhys pointing a gun at me” in a second. Fiona pushed me out of the way and he… he… just shot her.“

Sasha collapsed in on Vaughn again who caught her, “He’s just… been keeping you here?”

“Yes… he tied me up in a storage room and had some goons drag me back here. I haven’t seen anything but this one guy who brings me the food and Rhys himself. I don’t… I don’t know why he bothered coming considering all I would do is threaten him. S’why he started coming in the door from Fiona’s room. Chain doesn’t go far enough.”

Looking down it was clear she was right. The chain would reach at best halfway to the door.

“I don’t know how long I’ve been here, how long has it been since we talked? With no sun and no clocks visible from where I’m chained...”

“It’s been a month,” Vaughn replied, “You’ve been here a month.”

“Fuck…” Sasha mumbled, “Will you help me get off Helios?”

“Of course…” Vaughn mumbled, “Rhys has been sleeping more than usual. We can and should go right now.”

“One second, I have to do exactly one thing and I wouldn’t do this unless I wasn’t mildly afraid I’ll pass out on the trip home,” Sasha said, stumbling awkwardly over to the long cold dinner and shoveling several handful of french fries into her mouth.

“So, if Rhys was giving you food…”

“Hunger strike,” Sasha answered through a mouthful, “But we’re leaving so…”

\- - -

Their footsteps echoed in the narrow, narrow maintenance hallway.

Apparently, Vaughn’s always had an odd hobby for studying blueprints in his spare time.

It was in their favor as it kept them out of sight of any and all security cams, which Vaughn suspected was how Rhys kept finding out where they all were all the time.

Dropping through a maintenance hatch, Sasha found herself standing right at the site of Fiona’s murder. Frozen in place, she stared right at where Fiona had been lying. No sign of it even happening, the floor immaculately clean.

“C’mon, we have to get off here quick,” Vaughn said, grabbing her arm and taking her out of her stupor, “I’ll try to get Fiona’s body sent down to Pandora for you.”

Vaughn was already cracking open one of the pods and helping her in when it hit here, “Wait… are you?”

“I’m staying up here,” Vaughn answered, looking away to check something on the monitor, “I know you don’t understand or like this decision and I don’t expect you to. But as long as Rhys wants me up here, I’m going to be up here.”

“He’ll kill you,” Sasha replied, grabbing his wrist and trying to prevent him from leaving the pod.

For a second it almost looked like he was going to stay but instead he just hugged her tightly, “He won’t kill me. Not going to be happy with me, but he’s not going to kill me.”

“Please come with me,” Sasha begged, balling her hands into the back of the suit jacket but knowing he could easily get her off of him if he wanted to.

“I can’t,” Vaughn replied, pulling her off and starting to climb out of the pod, “My place is here. Hopefully, I can see you again someday. I’m gonna miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too,” Sasha replied, reaching out futilely to him, “Please, try to stay safe.”

“Don’t worry, Rhys seriously wouldn’t hurt me.”

Neither was ready for another voice to chime in, “I really wouldn’t.”

Vaughn fell backwards into the pod again, nearly landing on Sasha’s lap as Rhys took the last few steps into view. Sasha only panicked more as Vaughn put himself between her and Rhys, just as Fiona did.

“D-don’t do anything you’re going to regret, Rhys,” Vaughn said, not feeling nearly as confident in his previous assertion.

Sasha nearly yelped as Vaughn tried to push harder against the back of the escape pod, mildly crushing her as Rhys lifted his jacket to reveal his holster was empty, “I’m unarmed and Vaughn could kick my ass so…”

“What the fuck do you want then?” Sasha sneered back at him, fighting against Vaughn who was still pinning her against the wall with his back. Probably for the best, considering how incredibly ready she was to attack Rhys. Considering that even unarmed Rhys’s right arm could still most likely break small bones if he grabs you hard enough that’s not something you should gamble on.

Rhys didn’t answer, just stared at them blankly for a long time before finally asking, “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Why are we doing this to you?! You kept us here against our will, killed Fiona and then kept me in my r-”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Rhys waved her off, pointing at Vaughn, “You.”

“Look, Rhys, you’re my oldest and pretty much only friend but this is fucked up. Just… just let Sasha go. You’ve already put her through so much. I know you’ll be lonely with just the two of us-”

“Who said you’re staying?” he droned out.

Sasha felt Vaughn freeze then immediately just sort of collapse a second later, defeated, “W-what do you mean?”

“You want her to leave so much? You’re going to leave with her. Before you were correct in that I wouldn’t physically hurt you. So I just need you to leave. Right now. With her,” Rhys said, with a nod towards Sasha.

Vaughn finally pushed himself up, trying to step out of the pod as he tried to sound confident for once in his life, “Rhys, c’mon, you don’t mean that. Even if you did send me down to Pandora you’d change your mind like a day later and it’s a lot harder to get up there than to get shot down there. Save yourself some trouble.”

The metal hand on his chest stopped him, Rhys shook his head, “This is… look, you just need to go. Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

Looking down, Vaughn sounded even smaller than usual as his attempt at bravado, “Alright…”

Reaching up one last time, Vaughn went for a hug but Rhys just backed away further, “Go sit next to Sasha.”

“Are you serious?” Vaughn asked, devastated look on his face futilely hoping Rhys was.

“No, get in there,” Rhys ordered.

Vaughn hesitated for a long second before giving up, sitting obediently next to Sasha as Rhys approached the external control panel. Tapping away, he set the coordinates towards the nearest non-bandit town. Some place called “Overlook.” Sounded safe enough.

Inside the pod, Sasha pulled Vaughn to make him rest against her shoulder as she stared into space. Out, towards Pandora.

As Sasha looked the opposite way she watched Rhys walk away as the pod started to launch, not even looking back.


	7. Nothing Ever Lasts Forever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter certainly ended up much longer than intended but then again this whole fic kinda was. I'm very happy with how this fic ended up although I don't think I'll be writing another BL fic for a while. BL tag's pretty dead although I do appreciate you few who did read this.
> 
> Either way, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it! Or at least, I hope you enjoyed it lol.

Waking up the next day, for a brief moment, Rhys laid on his back with his eyes closed and pretended everything was normal.

He was going to get up, get shower, get dress, go to Vaughn’s room to pick him up then head to the office. They’d meet Yvette along the way and she’d somehow manage to trick one of them into paying for her customary breakfast bagel.

Or maybe he was just waking up in the caravan. Although, Fiona’s wakey-wakey methodology was usually to overturn his cot and dump him on the ground. Every day a new joke. Then it’d be time for Sasha’s breakfast. Normal portions for Rhys, herself and Fiona. Giant portion for Vaughn. She always plays favorites.

Hell, even a second to imagine he was getting ready for another day as CEO. This is his fantasy, he can make it whatever he wants. Rhys picks up Vaughn and the sisters, they have lunch in his massive office. Vaughn and Fiona cheerily leave to take care of their duties for the day, Sasha sits happily at her assistant desk. Everyone’s here, alive and happy.

But sitting up he knew none of that was going to happen. He showered off, got dressed and walked alone to his office.

The ugly yellow chair only felt more uncomfortable than usual as Rhys settled into it.

From the drawer, Jack’s voice came taunting. Well, mostly making incessant noises in an obnoxious demand to be heard.

After roughly twenty minutes it became obvious Jack wasn’t going to let up this time. Sighing, Rhys pulled the broken ECHO device out.

“If I talk to you for a while, will you stop making those fucking noises?” Rhys hissed.

“Yes,” Jack replied, nodding with a victorious smirk on his face, “So, everything’s going as I said right? C’mon, you can tell me. And I’ll know if you’re lying.”

Rhys figured, why the fuck not. Jack really was the closest thing he had to friend right now and that’s easily the most pathetic thing in his entire life. Giving up, Rhys set the broken ECHO device on the desk and leaned back in the chair, “I shot Fiona. Kept Sasha in captivity for a month then Vaughn helped her escape. I made him go with her.”

Jack was dead silent for a second, looking dumbstruck. Eventually his face cracked as he bursted into downright joyous laughter as he crowed, “Oh my god! Are you messing me, Rhysie? Seriously?!”

Rhys just silently glared at him, very evident he wasn’t joking.

“I mean, I was expecting ‘Pandoran chicks got off the station’ not that you freaking killed one, imprisoned the other and even lost your friggin’ lackey! I mean, it was gonna happen but like… in time. You- you did this all in like what? Two months? Three months?”

Jack seemed unthreatened as Rhys leaned forward and picked up the broken ECHO device again, “Hey, remember how I am in control of your entire crappy little word? You wanna get airlocked?”

“Oh please, pumpkin, don’t make me laugh,” Jack said, laughing anyways, “I’m all you’ve got now. Hey, how’s about this? Plug me into something bigger than a tissue box and give me a little free reign… maybe I could forgive you.”

“Thanks for insinuating I’m stupid,” Rhys flatly replied.

“You don’t like insinuation?” Jack sneered, eyes speaking volumes of hatred, “How’s about this? You’re a freaky little twig man who managed to fuck up a good thing in downright impressive time. You dress like a french clown who got a PHD in being a douchebag. You’re gonna die alone with everyone who ever loved you hating your fucking guts. How’s that, kiddo? That better? You feelin’ good now?”

Jack didn’t seem to care at all about the fact Rhys’s metal hand was crushing dents into the side of his electronic prison.

He didn’t even flinch as Rhys started yelling back at him, metal finger banging on the screen.

“Look who’s talking?! You were an ugly old man who died because he just couldn’t stop being a unbelievably massive asshole long enough to step back and take a look at himself! You died a monster, Jack. Only idiots like ME wanted to be like you but you know what we all thought? ‘I can do it better.’”

Jack yelled louder over him, “I can do it better? You crashed and burned harder and faster than a flaming bandit technical flying off a cliff into a buzzard! You took the controls and sent the whole thing straight into the ground! And now, you’re gonna sit there on your throne of garbage and act like you did better? You did nothing! All you did was fail! Every step in your stupid little Wicked Witch of the West shoes just led you to another failure!”

“You really like to talk shit on clothes when you dressed like a toddler who just started getting ready in the mornings by himself!”

“Rhys, dum-dum, idiot, pumpkin, drooling moron, cupcake. You fucking shot your friend in the head after like three months of being CEO! I mean! It took me YEARS to start killing my friends.”

“At least I didn’t get my non-existent DAUGHTER killed.”

That stopped Jack mid sentence, mouth agape for a second before his face grew darker than ever, “I don’t know why you know that but god, if I’m ever free again? I will kill you. Some way, somehow, I’ll kill you. Slowly and painfully.”

Almost word for word. Identical. Sasha glaring up at him, tied to a chair.

Metal fingers cracked the glass, only distorting Jack through fragments of glass. He seemed to balk at that, changing his tune, “Hey, hey, buddy. Just kidding. Jokes? Right? Don’t do something you’ll regret. Don’t want another Fiona situation on your hands, do ya?”

“I like Fiona way more than I liked you,” Rhys hissed before suddenly and abruptly flinging the ECHO device at the wall. Glass flew wildly, small pieces even ripping at his face as he stood up and kicked it over to survey the damage.

Entire screen was decimated, parts and pieces sticking out. Only flashes of blue betrayed Jack still being there and the staticy, scratchy voice crackling out, “Don’t do thi-”

The heel of Rhys’s boot dug into it with a sharp stomp. Raising it again and again, the crunching and cracking noises loud in the wide, empty room.

Panting, Rhys stopped.

Every single piece had been broken.

Not a single chip left intact.

Satisfied with that, Rhys went back to the chair and collapsed into it. Staring out the window, looking down towards Pandora.

What was the point now? He didn’t want to admit but Jack was right. He had nothing.

Although, these thoughts were about to become irrelevant.

The tap was barely perceivable, the footsteps following only audible because of how dead silent the office was.

Rhys didn’t even turn the chair around, “Sasha sent you.”

A statement, not a question.

“Not going to fight?” the cold voice asked.

“I don’t care anymore,” was Rhys’s only answer.

“That’s sad, I suppose,” they replied.

“I don’t know what you want, if you expected me to try to pay you more or something. But I just really don’t care anymore. Burned all my bridges and now I’m alone on an island. Might as well have someone torch the island too.”

“A flame in the dark/ Oddly honorable, Rhys / I’ll make it quick then.”

Despite being firm in that decision, it didn’t make it any less terrifying for Rhys as Zer0 slowly skulked in. A large, Hyperion brand sniper rifle at their side. Black and red with glistening gold. Watching Zer0 raise the gun, all but pressing it up against his forehead. Right where he’d shot Fiona.

Closing his eyes, Rhys took his final breath before the gunshot signalled the end.


End file.
